§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many human embryos have been:
- (a) created;
- (b) frozen;
- (c) destroyed;
- (d) implanted; and
- (e) experimented upon
since the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. [HL6225]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath:The latest available figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) are that 925,747 embryos have been created through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment, 423,153 have been transferred for implantation, 225,627 stored for the patient's own use, 448 stored for the treatment of others and 53,497 given for research: 294,584 embryos remained unused during the course of IVF treatment cycles, including those considered non-viable for implantation. Figures are not collected routinely on the number of embryos allowed to perish because the statutory storage period had ended or because a patient had requested it.
The figures relate to activity that the HFEA began recording in 1991 and reflect, for instance, that a number of embryos were already in storage at that time.